The National Treasury agrees with the city of Cape Town, regarding their feasibility study. The Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana sent out a letter on the 15th of April addressed to Councillor Roberto Quintas, Mayoral Committee Member for Transport. The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula respond by reminding Godongwana that he is in charge of all things transport.

The study that the city of Cape Town wants to conduct, is to determine if it should run its own passenger rail system. The study is going to begin on the 1st of July 2022. An important part of the study is to determine how public transportation is funded by the government. This is where Godongwana came in, as the Minster of Finance, said that “A study of this kind is essential as the assignment and delegation framework demands that the government recognize the current capacity constraints faced by many municipalities.” The letter sent by Godongwana was in response to a letter that was sent by Quintas. Godongwana said, “the attempts by your municipality to adequately respond to the increased commuters and activity in your city are appreciated”.

However, Mbalula said in a statement, that he does support the “sentiment” but Godongwana doesn’t have a say in these issues as he is the one who is empowered by the law to assign any public transport function to any municipality. Mbalula went on to say that next week he will publicly release the White Paper on the national rail policy which deals with devolution of the rail function to cities like Cape Town, and he will address all matters to do with the current issue in the launch.